Complete noob here. I’m trying to understand the process, to determine what equipment I’ll need.
I have a dedicated server (HP DL380 G9) that I use for various things (virtualized router, NAS, other VMs). The server does not have bluetooth built in.
I bought a BLE device from Amazon (Amazon.com).
I am planning on getting data from it to automate various things (watering,etc…). Putting 2 & 2 together, I believe I need a USB bluetooth adapter in my server (with passthrough to the VM) to listen to the bluetooth broadcasts. Am I correct in this? or do I need another device to communicate with the Miflora? Additionally, if the plants are too far from the server, as I expect they will be, what other equipment would I need to communicate with them? Some sort of esp32 device that communicates to my server with wifi?
Lastly, if I have this other said device to read the sensor data, would it be able to read from multiple Miflora sensors?
I would do the whole thing with an esp32 and esphome. Then you can put the esp32 within bluetooth reach of the mifloras and wifi reach of your access point. See Xiaomi Mijia BLE Sensors — ESPHome
And yes, it can deal with multiple sensors, there will be a limit somewhere, but I have no idea what it is. Luckily esp32s are cheap.